Jordan is to pick up most of the construction costs of a US$90M hydroelectric dam on the country’s border with Syria.
Scheduled for completion during late 2005, Wahdah dam is to be built on the Yarmuk river and will generate some 18.8MkWh of electricity a year, which will mostly be sent to Syria, as well as supplying drinking and irrigation water to Jordan.
Of Wahdah’s 110Mm3 total storage capacity, over 80Mm3 will be sent to water-stressed Jordan. Some 50Mm3 of this will be used to top up drinking water supplies to the cities of Amman and Irbid.
BBC news reports quote the Jordanian water minister Hazem Nasser saying the dam would not solve Jordan’s water problems. But he pointed out that it would make an ‘important contribution by reducing by around 10% Jordan’s water deficit.’
Plans for Wahdah have a long history, dating back some 50 years, but have been delayed by poor funds.